‘They want to go back home, obviously’: Ben Carson claims Syrian refugees don’t want to come to the U.S.

Ben Carson said after visiting Syrian refugee camps in Jordan that refugees don’t want to come to the U.S. at all, they just want to go home. (Ross D. Franklin/AP)

During a visit to Syrian refugee camps in Jordan, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said the displaced want to return to their homeland — not come to the United States.

Carson said the U.S. should provide more aid to Jordan's relief efforts, rather than let Syrian refugees into the U.S. Like the other Republican presidential candidates, Carson does not want Syrian refugees coming to this country.

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"I had an opportunity to talk to many of the Syrian refugees and ask them what is your supreme desire? And it was pretty uniform. They want to go back home, obviously," Carson told ABC's "This Week" from Amman, Jordan's capitol.

"If you do that, you solve that problem without exposing the American people to a population that could be infiltrated with terrorists who want to destroy us," he told ABC.

Asked if there were terrorists among the Syrian families who greeted him warmly, the former neurosurgeon demurred.

Refugees and migrants jump off a boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos on Thursday. (GIORGOS MOUTAFIS/REUTERS)

"I don't know whether there were or not. But I do know that the ISIS terrorists have said that if we bring refugees, that they would infiltrate them. And why wouldn't they?" he said.

Carson made the Middle East trip amid questions about his foreign policy experience and fitness to be commander in chief.

"I'm acknowledging that I like to know what I'm talking about," he said. "It's good to be able to see these things for yourself so you can actually begin to formulate the right kinds of policies with the real information."